


Tell Me Everything

by im_significant



Series: Errant on Errantry [1]
Category: Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-05 16:37:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1096177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/im_significant/pseuds/im_significant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Claire goes missing, Stacey worries, everyone miscommunicates. Claire finds that the consequences of living in a sevarfrith culture are a little more personal this time, and once she's told one secret, the others start pouring out. (Chapter 2 is planned but not yet written, tags will be updated if necessary.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tell Me Everything

Stacey sits in her desk chair and spins slowly back and forth.  She hears footsteps and glances up to see Jacob walking toward her. He looks tired. There are dark circles under his eyes and lines of tension around his mouth as he walks back to the desk. His hands are still a little damp from washing. Just as he reaches the counter, a green light blinks on over one of the rooms down the hall, accompanied by the soft chime that signals a non-urgent request for assistance from a patient. His face stays the same, but his shoulders droop just a little bit more. The dark-haired woman at the desk, the new nurse whose name Stacey can’t remember without checking her name tag, doesn’t say anything. She just smiles, stands up, and stretches her back with her arms over her head before heading off towards the green light. Jacob slumps into the now-vacant chair with a suppressed sigh.  

Stacey gets up from her own chair and wanders over to stand behind Jacob’s slouching form. She runs her hands over his shoulders, smoothing down the pale purple fabric of his scrubs. 

“Shift... almost over,” she says, and is momentarily annoyed that she can’t make the words come out right, even though she knows Jacob has known her long enough to understand.

Jacob responds with a noncommittal grunt and leans back in his chair, his head resting against Stacey’s chest. She wraps her arms around his shoulders and drops her chin to rest on the top of his head. The computer screen in front of them paints their faces with blue light. Stacey takes a deep breath as she listens to the rhythmic beeping of the monitors in the rooms and the muffled sounds of someone’s late-night TV show drifting out from one of the curtained doorways. This wing of the hospital is almost always quiet, patients waiting out their recovery time under the watchful eyes of the small team of nurses, but tonight is duller than ever. Most of the rooms are empty, which Stacey supposes is a good thing, but it makes her feel jittery. There’s nothing to keep her occupied tonight, nothing to keep her from worrying.

As if reading her mind, Jacob says, “You have the day off tomorrow, right?”

Stacey stiffens and makes an unreadable face. 

He pulls away and spins his chair around to look at her and she feels suddenly very cold without him leaning against her. She realizes that she and Claire haven’t spoken more than a few words in a row to each other all week, and haven’t touched at all. They haven’t even kissed goodbye since before the fight.

“You still haven’t talked to her, have you,” he says, a statement rather than a question.

Stacey flutters her hands and bounces on the balls of her feet to calm herself. Her red hair, unruly curls tied back with a green scrunchie, bounces with her.

Down the hall, another green light blinks on. The alert chimes. Stacey flinches and Jacob looks up, but the new nurse is already halfway there, moving with the energy of someone for whom the novelty of the night shift has not yet worn off. Jacob turns back to Stacey.

“You know, it’s not going to get better if you keep avoiding her like this.”

She scrunches up her face, still bouncing as she pulls out her phone and types out, “She’s avoiding me too.” She turns the phone so he can read it.

“Well, you can’t avoid each other forever.  You might as well talk to her tomorrow before it gets worse.”

“Don’t know what to say,” Stacey types. “What if she won’t listen? Feel bad that it bothers me.”

He reads the words on the screen, then says, “It’s okay that it bothers you. She disappeared for two days! Anyone would worry. If it’s that hard, why don’t you try writing out a script for it? Then you can read it aloud, or just show it to her if it comes to that. I’ll even read if over for you, if you want.”

Stacy nods, still bouncing up and down.

There’s another chime, and this time two green lights are on. Jacob stands up and points to Stacey’s chair. “I’ve got this one. You, type. Now.”

Stacey sticks her tongue out at him and he grins.  She sits back down at her side of the desk and opens a new document on her phone.  As Jacob hurries away, she glances at the time display on her phone. The shift is almost over.  She begins to type.

***

Stacey gets off the bus just as the sun is coming up. It paints all the windows in brilliant orange and the birds in the big pine trees in front of her house are twittering excitedly. Through the big bay window in the living room she can see Claire slumped on the couch, head in her hands and elbows resting on her knees. Stacey’s hands shake as she fumbles the key into the lock and opens the door. Claire startles at the sound and looks up as she enters. Stacey shuts the door behind her and tries not to jump as it slams a little harder than she intended. Claire jumps up from the couch, hurrying forward.

“Stacey-” she starts.

Stacey tries to speak at the same time but nothing comes out of her mouth. She shakes her head rapidly in frustration.

Claire stops and sits back down slowly, gesturing to the cushion next to her. “Can we talk about it? I’m tired of trying to act like we don’t live in the same house... That is, if you even still want me here after all that.”

Stacey winces at that, but doesn’t even try to respond. She has the feeling she’d like to voice, a sort of panic in her stomach and an emptiness in her chest, but the words won’t come. She has too much tension in her body to sit down, but she nods in agreement to the talking, and also to wanting Claire to stay. She paces back and forth across the room a couple times, flapping her hands in a futile attempt to calm down. Claire waits. Stacey stops pacing, pulls her phone from her pocket, and opens the script she wrote at the hospital. Claire isn’t looking at her, her dark eyes fixed on the wall instead, but she can tell she’s listening. She feels a sudden warm rush of affection for the woman for knowing exactly what to do.

“I- you- bleaaaa.” Stacey shakes her head and starts over, rocking slightly on her heels now that her hands are otherwise occupied. “Worried,” she says. “Gone. Didn’t know where. Wanted... wanted you safe-” She shakes her head again and thrusts the phone out to Claire. 

Claire takes it, careful that their fingers don’t brush. Stacey waits and returns to flapping her hands while Claire reads, turning her back and holding her hands up by her chest so the motion won’t be distracting. Claire clears her throat to let her know she’s finished, and she turns back around, her hands going still.

Claire is smiling timidly. “I’m sorry,” she says. “I’m sorry I disappeared. I’m sorry I was avoiding you. I thought you thought I-” She laughs nervously. “I guess I’ve got a lot to explain, huh?”

Stacey nods.

“Will you forgive me?”

Stacey grabs her phone back and types, “Yes, but you better tell me EVERYTHING,” before dropping it back in Claire’s lap and plopping down on the couch next to her.

Claire reads it, smiles, and nods, relief plain on her face. “Okay,” she says. And after a moment, “Can... can I hug you?”

Stacey scoots closer and Claire wraps her arms around her middle, hugging her tight.


End file.
